Recent Work

Scriptwriting & Series Development

Project: Develop a series of video shorts for IKA Collective that would highlight people and companies who are using technology to create innovative business solutions that also improve people's lives. This is the story of a group of visionary eye doctors in the mountains of Argentina who foresee a world in which 'telemedicine' can create truly universal access to healthcare. (2:35)

Business writing - Legal

Project: Co-write a series of policy pieces on hot-button issues in workers' compensation law for a leading Louisiana attorney.

America's Opioid Epidemic: The New Battleground for Workers' Rights

A 3,500-word expose of how the insurance industry is attempting to use the opioid epidemic to dismantle the "Grand Bargain" that historically protected America's workers. Published in the Summer 2016 edition of the Workers' Law and Advocacy Group's quarterly journal.

Crooked contractors across America intentionally risk the health and livelihood of their workers in order to save money. By "misclassifying" employees as independent contractors, companies avoid paying social security and Medicare taxes, workers' compensation, and even overtime wages.

The results for injured workers and their families are often catastrophic. Many end up on social security and Medicare, lacking access to adequate health care and unable to work and support their families.

These companies are ripping off honest taxpayers - to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Mr. Hubachek proposes that enforcing existing laws against corporate tax cheats is one way for Louisiana to remedy its historic budget crisis.

Opioid overdoses have become a legitimate public health issue - the DEA says opioids now kill more Americans each year than gunshots or car accidents.

Insurers and their political allies are pushing states to adopt mandatory closed prescription drug formularies as the solution to "America's opioid epidemic." These privately funded prescribing guidelines are marketed as evidence-based medicine (EBM). But closed formularies deny needed medication to millions of Americans who suffer in chronic pain and threaten the integrity of the physicians charged with treating them.

And, it turns out, the "evidence" for EBM is rather suspect. In Part 1 we look at the questionable science underlying the CDC's new federal opioid guidelines:

Older Stuff

I lost most of my old corporate writing samples when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Most of it wasn't that interesting anyway, unless you're really into help systems and software documentation. As I track down more samples, I'll post them here.

JOURNALISm

Operation Smile

In 1991, I hitchhiked from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Bucharest to write a story about American doctors who were volunteering in Romanian orphanages just after the fall of the Ceausescu regime. The story was published by the Foundation for Economic Education in May 1993. (read it on the fee.org web site or open PDF by clicking the image below)